Man turns his coworker’s dirty keyboard into a ‘garden’

When I hear people talk about how they need to share a desk with a coworker, I am a little appalled. Your desk is your personal space — germs and all — and some people certainly have more germ-laden work centers than other.

Admit it, you all have a coworker (or three) whose desk area is so messy it has you wondering what their home may be like. The other logical query may just be “is something living in there” because, really, it looks like life could exist in the nooks and crannies on your desk.

One man made that speculation a reality after he put seeds in his vacation colleague’s computer keyboard. The results are, well, remarkable. Check out the gallery below.

If he hadn’t added the “soil” then I would have found the story more interesting but since he “created” the possiblity of being successful by planting the soil then the entire piece means absolutely nothing other than he created an environment by using the soil that made the entire event possible and therefore had nothing to do with the keyboard being dirty prior to adding the soil…….

I used to have my Staff of Supervisors visually inspect the Departments Keyboards once a week due to a number of them being in use 24/7/365. Management supplied the alcohol and cotton balls…Be surprised how illnesses, especially during the Cold and Flu season was noticeably diminished over a period of two years of observation.

I also applaud Wal-Mart for supplying Cart/Buggy Cleaning Clothes. Be surprised how much bacteria, molds and viruses are passed about due to filthy Cart/Buggy handles…Our petre dishes in Biol Lab in College sure made me think twice about those Cart handles after we raised all sorts of bad things from taking samples of those Carts.

Two thoughts – 2.5 week vacation? Wow, those State workers have it good.
Also, it appears the prankster here was dumping soil and water into said keyboard…I’m guessing the boss was none too happy that this keyboard was destroyed.

People who travel abroad to visit family in other countries often take -more- than 2 weeks of vacation time. Since they are traveling such a great distance, they want to make it worth their while. Also, they only usually take a vacation once per year. At least, this is the reason for a multi-week vacation in my workplace anyway.

On topic: This is hysterical!! I would imagine that the old keyboard will be replaced with a new one when the vacationer comes back…

t – I have worked at several non-state jobs where people occasionally took 4 week vacations. Like the poster above, it is often for visiting family far away. And it’s not like it’s a regular thing – they would save up their vacation time for several years.

I’m not a state worker, but I interact with many very competent and hard-working state workers through my job, and I get tired of hearing them bashed for no reason.

There are European type electrical outlets in the background of the Day 9 photo. This prank was definitely not carried out in NY. Also, vacation time is for…guess what…TAKING VACATION! I get five weeks a year and if I want to take three or four consecutive weeks off, then I work with my staff and management to make that happen.

It’s amazing to me how a seemingly harmless prank gets people so bent out of shape and leads to commentary on state workers, violations of personal space, and whether or not it’s appropriate to take a long vacation. It’s a prank. It’s either funny to you, or it’s not. Stop looking for fights!

Immediately some folks assume this person was a State worker because he/she took a 4-week vacation. The unstated premise of that type of comment is the belief that State workers get too much vacation time.

But when someone points out that this prank most likely occurred in Europe (based on the outlets and the costs being displayed in Euros), no one says (unsarcastically), “Gee – isn’t it great that in Europe they can take a 4-week vacation?”

Why is it that American workers pride themselves on accepting so little – and belittle or mock other workers who get more?